Existing food security groups don’t have capacity to fill the gap

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Melys Jerez, a volunteer, picks out groceries requested by a senior isolating at home at a Safeway in Chico on Tuesday. She is wearing protective medical equipment as a precaution, but public health officials are not recommending them for the general public. (Camille von Kaenel — Enterprise-Record)

CHICO — Organizers are scrambling to help get food and other essentials to older or vulnerable people who are staying at home to protect against the spread of the coronavirus.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s guidance on Sunday for people over the age of 65 or with medical conditions to self-isolate left food security groups rushing to find alternatives practically overnight. It has also led to an outpouring of offers by healthy neighbors to help deliver groceries, medication and other essentials to those isolating at home, with proper precautions.

The surge of solidarity is flowing along now-familiar grooves in Butte County: The initiatives echo, and in some cases even dovetail with, relief efforts after the Camp Fire.

“We were involved in mutual aid disaster relief during the fire, so we realized we were probably in as good of a position as anybody to be setting up senior delivery,” explained Addison Winslow, a Chico organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America. “We are doing this in the spirit of solidarity. … we have to stick together and not allow ourselves to see other more vulnerable people just left to deal in situations like this.”

Community members wanting to help have turned to virtual meeting places like Nextdoor, a neighborhood social media site and app, and Facebook. Some have adopted the phrase “care-mongering”.

Winslow is taking it one step further. He’s helping to organize a network of volunteers who can pick up groceries and medication and is taking requests for support through a Google form. The group can also be reached by calling or texting 645-2028 or by emailing chicodsamutualaid@gmail.com.

On Tuesday, hours after first sending out the forms, the volunteers were already on their way to deliver their first package to an older adult in isolation, an urgent prescription the pharmacist allowed them to pick up on the person’s behalf. Next on their list, Winslow said, were some individuals in need of grocery deliveries in Biggs and Gridley, which the volunteers were hoping to group together.

North Valley Mutual Aid, an affiliate network that came together after the Camp Fire, is also signing people up to volunteer or request support. The groups are planning to work together.

The goal is to supplement new initiatives like curbside pick-up by restaurants and grocery stores as well as existing programs. Local food security groups are coming up with stopgap measures and long-term plans to prevent their regulars from going hungry, but they don’t have much capacity to meet the surge in need.

Butte County has higher rates of both older adults and people with medical conditions than the rest of California.

‘The panic is creating an even greater problem’

Karmy Miller, senior nutrition coordinator at Passages, a local aid organization for older adults, is in charge of organizing congregate meals for around 60 seniors a day at four group sites and of delivering basic groceries to 100. Passages stopped serving congregate meals on Monday. The program may transition to to-go meals, Miller said. She hopes to have a more solid long-term plan by next week.

Miller said one of the most difficult logistical challenges has been finding basic groceries and other essentials as people stock-pile. She went to four different stores this weekend just looking for loaves of bread to bring to the seniors she’s signed up to serve every week. Many of the people live in small spaces like travel trailers that do not allow for reserves and instead require frequent shopping, she said.

“I want to make sure people don’t panic anymore, because the panic is creating an even greater problem,” she said. “There are people who can’t get to the store, and when they do, the things that they need are not there.”

Melinda Larkin of Chico Meals on Wheels, which delivers meals for vulnerable individuals for a small fee, said her team has already been taking precautions like dropping off the meals on peoples’ doorsteps rather than meeting them face-to-face.

She organizes delivery to 110 people a day, she said. That’s already nearly double the numbers before the Camp Fire. She’s seen a small increase in demand in recent days.

Food bank seeking healthy volunteers

The North State Food Bank, meanwhile, is looking for additional volunteers and donations, said Thomas Dearmore, the community services manager at the Community Action Agency of Butte County, which runs the food bank.

The food bank partners with pantries across the region to distribute food on certain days. As of Monday, the distributions are set to continue as scheduled, he said.

Dearmore said he had been passing along guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Food Assistance Program to relax some of the sign-in rules for people picking up the food to ease the distribution to individuals with the most needs.

“It’s kind of business as usual, and we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, frankly,” he said. “It seems like things are just ramping up. We will do everything we can, but I don’t know how much we can take on.”

There are already some challenges: Several groups of volunteers have pulled out because they are made up of older retirees. Dearmore said he was looking for young, healthy volunteers, especially at the Hope Center of Oroville. He was also working to fill some shortages, particularly baby formula.

Camille von Kaenel covers Camp Fire recovery. She is a corps member with Report for America, a national non-profit organization that helps fund local journalists. She's happy to be back hiking the hills and mountains of her home state of California.